My Glorious Dolphin Dive (Head-First) into the Portfolio Project
Bam. Before I knew it, we made it well past the half-way mark of this course. Every project until now has been like riding a bike with training wheels, and now we finally have to put on our adult pantaloons and ride a dirt bike backwards while doing a handstand. While riding a dirt bike backwards while doing a handstand is a challenge, I know I will have a ton of fun in the process of riding a dirt bike backwar-
Okay, fine, I'm done with that bit.
The portfolio project sees us AICE Media AS students creating a two minute film opening while documenting the entire process of its creation right here on this blog. A long, arduous process it will be, with every single detail and decision made, every single bit of research; EVERYTHING, going right here on this blog. I am over-exaggerating, of course, but much of the research and decisions made will be logged here, providing a timeline for the progression of the creation of our film opening, and showing the many obstacles encountered and all the pole vaulting poles we constructed (by hand, by the way) to launch ourselves over and beyond the obstacle. It will show how we conquered our fears and learned how to ride a dirt bike backwar-
The portfolio project is due March 25, 2025, and will account for a major portion of our AICE exam grade. The film opening itself must be as close to 2 minutes as possible, preferably going a bit over rather than under the time requirement. The opening will be for a NEW fiction film, with all visual elements being original (other than fonts, of course), and including credits for major production roles (ex. Director, Producer, main actors, etc.). While a lot of my personal effort will go into the actual film opening, as my main purpose for taking this course was to develop my skills so I can create better film, I will also have to focus on keeping up the quality and consistency of my blog postings. This will be a major challenge in time management, a weakness of mine.
Approaching Planning
Okay, so I have an idea for the overall film and just need to think of a way to open it. The idea came to me in a dream, and I am being so for-real. Anywho (I promise I won't write like this on the exam), I will delve deeper into the actual plot in a later blog post.
Just as the film plot flitted like a feather into my mind as I slumbered, that same feather is tickling some undiscovered corner of my mind, seemingly trying to convey a sound plan for how to sequence the opening. I think the feather is tickling me in Morse code, but unfortunately I am not fluent and I must spend some amount of time working through our language barrier. So for now, I will discuss the overall approach.
We recently had a lesson discussing film openings, their purpose, and various techniques and approaches to creating one. Some of the approaches included developing characters, establishing the background, establishing setting, and creating a sense of mystery. From what I have interpreted from the feather's almost unintelligible and staccato ramblings hitherto, it seems the best approach will be to establish the background context of the film without relying on dialogue, focusing on the relationship between the main character and her father. Due to the main character being non-verbal at this stage in the film, combined with the fact that her and her father live in solitude, relying on characters' dialogue was never an option to begin with.
Here r the notes
In the process of developing the background, I will also be able to subtly develop the characters, establish the setting, and create a sense of mystery through various mise-en-scène elements, the interactions and actions between and of characters, and foreshadowing.
